Halloween Already?

Seems like summer has just ended and daylight savings time will kick in this Sunday. The gloomy days of winter, when it gets dark before dinner hits the table, is upon us. Not even Halloween can help. The trees still have most of their leaves but they’re falling, and soon the yard will be covered. I gave up raking a few years back when I discovered they had a “Mulching Blade” for my mower.  I can now do in a couple of hours what used to take all day, raking, gathering, and burning leaves.

Our Soldier son spent two weeks of leave from Afghanistan with us. He looks good, says he feels good, and is ready to complete the last 5 months of the tour. This is his second, after Iraq, and says he’s tired of the sand and brown landscape of South West Asia. He’s getting a few years on him and is ready to pack it in after 20 plus years in the Georgia Guard and Army reserve. He’s ready to get back to work for the college.

This weekend was wasted getting the computers up and running Windows 7. I started using computers before Bill Gates, running an IBM operating system called DOS. Gates took over that code and began the prelims to Windows. As with all of the Micro Soft upgrades, it was a mess. I run 3 PC’s and a MAC. One PC handles my personal data, Quicken, email, etc. Another works other programs, websites, and stuff, and the third is the “E’s” mail machine. I run a web site on the MAC. I could tell you all the gory details but I don’t have the temper, time, or the room here. What I will tell you, don’t believe all of the hype about 7. I thought that maybe this time it would all work smoothly. Not a chance. The first attempt was on my most up to date machine, with 64 bit processor. The three pack I bought from Micro Soft for the home package, lauding the network set up, had a 64 bit disk. BUT, I had a version that did not fit the “Upgrade” requirement, it was more program than the new 7, so it would load as an operating system but would NOT keep my data. I needed a backup, which I thought I had. You guessed it, The external hard drive which was set to backup weekly had nothing for the past month and a half. It’s one of those set ups that you assume is working.  NEVER ASUME as I’ve learned over the years. I just didn’t take my own advice. Windows 7 loaded fine. I spent a full day working back and forth between the bank and Quicken to get my financials reconciled. It took another full day to get the other stuff working.  The easiest machine of the three was the E’s. It had Vista Basic and the new 7 worked as advertised.

I could go on but I would rather forget it all and get on with the book. All of that work WAS backed up and Word marches on unaffected.